While traveling I love to take pictures of houses. As I was looking through old photos I came across some window flower boxes and decorated front doors. Most of these were taken in a quaint Pennsylvania town in Amish Country.

September is National Sewing Month! The observance of National Sewing Month began in 1982 with a proclamation from President Ronald Reagan declaring September as National Sewing Month “In recognition of the importance of home sewing to our Nation.”

In honor of “Throwback Thursday,” we have several links below of past sewing projects. We also included a link to the whimsical “Sew Happy” graphic. It is prominently displayed in our sewing room and you too can enjoy it in your sewing room by purchasing it from our Etsy shop.

Throwback Thursday highlights a post from years past that we think you might enjoy! This post originally made its debut on Grace Elizabeth’s on July 18, 2012.

I created this weekly calendar to put in the household binder. My favorite thing to do with this is put down EVERYTHING we will be doing. Each type of event gets its own color so we know who’s involved with what and how to prioritize when we have multiple commitments.I hope it helps keep track of your family’s busy schedule!

Have you ever laid a patio yourself? We did some time ago, but this time we put a little more thought and effort into it. Maybe I should say our daughter and son-in-law put a lot of back-breaking, knee bruising effort into it.

Ok, now I have to be honest. We didn’t follow all the steps for a “professionally” designed paver patio. Lowe’s website has a nice materials and tools list if you want to go the extra mile. We chose not to put gravel down before the sand. We may regret that later but last time we skipped both the gravel and sand. We just laid the pavers on a semi-level base of dirt. That patio served its purpose and we were not disappointed.

We purchased our 16″ x 16″ pavers on sale, of course, and bought 10 at a time making several trips to the store. Since we do not have a pickup we felt we could only put the weight of 10 blocks at a time in our Kia Soul. For the sand we had a local sand and gravel company deliver 1 ton of sand. Yes it was more than we needed but worth it rather than buying a zillion bags of sand.

Once we had all our materials we had to wait for the patio area to dry. It rained off and on for several weeks but we finally had a perfect weekend – a bit hot – to lay the patio. Unfortunately our soil is clay so removing the soil was very difficult: mucky, hard to dig and came out in large clumps. Good thing we had a lot of sand to fill the big holes.

Well that’s about it. You can see we used a level to place the pavers as even as we could. We are very happy with the final product. Someday we will get some edging bricks to finish around the edges, particularly by the plants. Watch for updates.

Thanks Alex and Jake for making our patio!!!

Tell us about your patio project. Is this something you would attempt yourself?

*Update* 7/22/14*

A good sewing machine makes a world of difference in attempting a project. I purchases my Janome DC5100 as a college graduation gift for myself about three years ago 🙂 Others of you may be using an older model – When I first started teaching FACS, the models in my room were over 30 years old – iron workhorses!

No matter, we love our sewing machines. My sewing machine and the things it allows me to create makes me happy. I hope this printable that I have created makes you happy too! It would be a great addition to your craft room. Sized for an 8×10. Enjoy!

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Last holiday season I fell in love with this wall hanging I found on Etsy. And I used it as inspiration for my own version.

In the shop at the farm, I found a junk pallet that was lying around. I sweet talked my husband into taking the board apart and cutting lengths to build this rustic tree. I chose to stencil the letters in red paint to add some festive color. The final step was to use wood glue to attach the limbs to the trunk of the tree.

Believe it or not…this project was on my “projects started but yet to be finished” list. I had all the words painted except those on the last board. And then I had to pick up my project and put it away. It never resurfaced until going through boxes in the spare bedroom after moving. I finished it real quick in time for the holiday season.

Being newly married and living in an apartment, we don’t have a lot for Christmas decor. Just our tree and stockings. This wall hanging was a fun addition and brings the Christmas spirit into the rest of living room. I want to add one new item each year-homemade or not!

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How many of you remember the song “Just a Swingin” by John Anderson – 1983? This used to be a favorite of Rick (my husband) and myself. Yes crazy! Click the link above to enjoy the video in the comfort of your own home.

What could be better than swingin’ on a porch swing on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I recall our first relocation to another town. The girls wanted us to look for a house with a porch. They thought that would be the coolest. We did end up with a house with a front porch but it was too narrow to hang a porch swing. Many years later and several houses down the road we have a porch swing. Sadly the girls no longer live with us but secretly it is my way to get them to come see us. 🙂

Courtney with her friend Heather enjoying time together before Courtney’s trip to Argentina.

I have included some pictures I pinned to my Pinterest boards while dreaming of a porch swing. We purchased our swing in the spring, oh that rhymes, and now I am just waiting for time to make it comfy and fun.

Shortly after we got married I wanted to preserve and display many treasured items from our wedding day. After working so hard to plan a memorable day, I didn’t want those items to get backed away in a box only to be rediscovered years later while cleaning out old stuff. Because many of the items were small, I thought a shadow box would be suitable. This was such a fun project to complete and every aspect of the shadow box has something to do with our wedding from the fabric the back is covered with, to the burlap bunting, and of course the items stored inside. It had previously been hanging in our master bedroom. After moving to our new place, I decided that I am too proud of it to hide it away. Now it is hung in the hallway so everyone who comes over can see it (and I still get to see it everyday too)!

Have you done anything special with memorabilia from your wedding day?

I finally feel like it is summer! I finished my first year of college the beginning of May, but then jumped right into two summer classes the following week. I have been done for two weeks now and I am FINALLY getting into the summer groove.

I know it has been a month since Mother’s Day, but I wanted to share flowers we potted that weekend. Nathan and I surprised my mom for the afternoon. (I always forget to call or buy a card so I figured a visit would be a gift!) I am so thankful that for this season of life they are only 2 hours away! It’s a nice get-a-way every once in a while.

Anyway, I have been wanting to pot some flowers for a while now, but never got around to buying a pot. My mother is so wonderful that she shared one of hers that she isn’t using with me! Of course, I had to climb the ladder to the attic to get it, but I’m so glad I did because I found my old yellow mud boots from when I was 8. When I grew out of them, we potted flowers in one of them. So I decided, since they were mine after all, I should use both to add some playfulness to our entrance.

So glad I took them home with me! Brings back some great childhood memories of the great outdoors.

Mackenzie Grace

Do you have any creative ideas for adding plants to your outdoor space?

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As I pondered what I was going to share today, I decided to be a bit sneaky. Don’t tell my daughters but I’m going to share a “Handcrafted” Wednesday on “For the Home” Thursday. Yes, we try to specialize each day of the week with a topic for the Blog and today I’m going to combine the two. I think you will agree that it works.

I am in need of a bed covering for a full sized bed and frankly I am having a hard time figuring out what I want. My first dilemma is – should I make it or just go out and buy it? Buying sounds easy but not when I really want it to look homemade. SOoo that means I am going to have to carve out some time to make this project. Well Alex, I guess the slip covers we’ve started will have to wait – not really.